Rep Ron Wright (R-TX) dies from Covid

I went through the last year of his Tweets (and he Tweeted often). The only times he mentioned masks were in reference to getting masks to hospitals. His early pandemic tweets promote social distancing, but not mask usage, and pictures throughout the pandemic reflected sporadic usage (it looks like he'd wear them if required by the business/location, but otherwise did not). He was a big fan of blaming "Communist China",an early adopter of the "reopen everything" philosophy and was pushing for the full reopening of schools as recently as three days ago (or had his staff promoting it, at any rate).

Of course, none of this changes the fact that he died, but since everyone is abuzz about what his mask stance was or wasn't, I was curious what his own words said.

My unpopular stance about this thread: there are some Peas that aren't eloquent with their words, and some that are often targeted for what they say, no matter what they say. Elannah, IMO, falls under both those categories. I can't help but feel like if one of the more eloquent, popular Peas had reflected the *shrug* mentality, they would've been lauded and liked, not accused of lacking humanity. Take that for what you will.

I hate to see anyone die from this virus.

It’s weird to me that when the first 450k+ died, the frequent response was “well, were they overweight? Were they old? They had co-morbidities, it wasn't COVID that killed them, they were going to die soon anyway. I’m not going to wear a mask/stay home/stop going to large gatherings/stop living my life just because some old person/fat person who was going to die anyway might get sick. Almost everyone who gets it will be fine, stop telling us what to do and open the schools/play the sports/have the rally!”

But this guy dies and all of a sudden there is concern and handslapping when someone asks whether he was wearing a mask or not? Where was the concern on January 6th when this guy’s colleagues were laughing and refusing masks while locked up in a small enclosed area because the COVID denier-in-chief had sold them the idea that it was all a democratic hoax?

I guess I somehow manage to be concerned about everyone. It's not that hard.

I don't get any of these politicized "sides" at all.

COVID is a deadly pandemic. It's extremely dangerous for people with co-morbidities. Thousands of others suffer long-term medical complications even as (possibly) the majority of people getting it recover fully without issue.

We're all at different risks for bad outcomes. The most susceptible among us need the most protection. Period.

That's my completely unchanged position of 11 months and it accompanies my continuing, careful, preventative measures.

Do I personally know anything about this Representative? No. Am I going to do any kind of research on him? No. Do I think that he was in a high risk population? Yes.

Did the man make himself more vulnerable? Yes, he continued working just as millions of other people have. As a US representative he was around many other people and he may or may not have properly worn a mask at every moment around others and that may also have increased his odds of catching this disease.

Don't we all know a growing number of people by now who have followed every guideline and still contracted COVID, though?

In all of these months I have yet to go anywhere where every tenth person or so is wearing a mask that isn't covering their nose and/or mouth at least some of the time I pass by them, yet I'm the one without compassion because I think it's abhorrent to be glad someone has gotten ill or died?

Fine. I'm just a terrible person. A terrible person with "Texas values" who wears two different masks high and tight inside public places.

I'm just going to say that very few people are actually evil people who actively wish people harm. None of us is as one dimensional as a one off comment on a board might portray us as. Everyone's patience is wearing very thin these days. I'm willing to admit that mine is for sure and I've tried to stay away from covid posts for quite some time now. But when I find myself infuriated just by reading the dinner thread, I know it's time for a break.

I can easily see both sides of this issue. And I encourage everyone to take a big step back for a moment and consider that the person on the other end of your comment is a human being trying to cope with the damage this virus has done to us as a society and individually.

This virus has been politicized by our leaders. This virus has pitted many of us against our friends and neighbors. This virus relies on us behaving in a certain way as a community to protect each other and some of us are disappointed we can't seem to rely on our friends and neighbors to help protect us. We are disappointed that those we've elected to lead us are behaving inappropriately. We are disappointed watching our friends and neighbors behave inappropriately. And let's face it, there's a bit of jealousy going on too. I know I am when I read that someone is getting together with a friend and I haven't seen my friends during this pandemic since summer when I could be outside and distanced.

There's a whole mix of complex emotions going on, sadness, anger, fear, jealousy, etc. And they are going on within all of us. I choose to give grace, to just about everyone, and when I feel I've gotten to the point where I can't give you grace, I have to walk away for a while and regroup. That's the point I'm at today. Consider that maybe a break from the board might allow some of you to reset your bearings, as well.

I agree with jeremysgirl. We're all frazzled after nearly one year of this pandemic. We see our friends and neighbors have people over. It's exhausting because we know that perhaps they were good for 10.75 months and made one mistake because they just couldn't handle it anymore. 

That is not what we're talking about (or at least not I). Not people who are trying to do the right thing and make a stupid mistake. Not people like you. It's people who we are supposed to look up to as pillars of our community. People we trust to tell and show us the right thing to do. People who we have elected to our Congress and our White House.

It is simply not okay for them to continually - over and over again - show us that they don't care about the science UNIQUELY because their president told them not to care. Wearing a mask would be going against Trump. This is what this congressman did. He did not care about one person that he infected. How do I know this? Because over and over again he wouldn't wear a mask. How many people did this man infect? We don't know. Shame on him.


And FWIW, I don't see that one person is telling you that you are without compassion leftturnonly. I see that some are saying that this man's life wasn't worth feeling super sad over because he continually chose over and over again to ignore science and infect others. Those are different things. 

The Texas values I follow include diverse cultures, inclusion, friendliness, long drives through wide open spaces, good music, and great food.

You will not find better examples of these things all together anywhere else. But unfortunately, white Christian nationalism is found in lots of places, including Texas.

I am sad for the people who loved him and are going to miss their loved one.

I find it hard to muster up concern for Mr. Wright after he submitted a bill to have every woman AND the physician charged with murder if that woman had a legal abortion. That was when I began to have no warm feelings for him.

If people choose not to do these things, the only people they affect are themselves (assuming they aren’t sharing needles or having unprotected sex) however when anti-maskers choose to go out in public without a mask, they aren’t only affecting themselves. Like smokers who are no longer allowed to smoke inside public places because they harm other people, anti-maskers are doing the same damned thing, harming other people. If the are infected, they could potentially cause hundreds or thousands of deaths. That makes me angry as hell. Luckily, I haven’t lost anyone I love. That doesn’t mean I won’t. That may make me angry and bitter enough to one day say, “Oh an anti-masker died?  BFD, at least it wasn’t someone who tried to be safe.”

I was going to stay out of this thread but I started getting twitchy with the comparison of Covid precautions and skin cancer precautions, etc. I do understand those comparisons are being made in the context of sympathy/grief/grace, but I’m glad you’ve jumped in to point out what is missing - harm to others - when framing some of these discussions. 

So now I’m jumping in to take your harm point further and compare flouting Covid precautions - or encouraging others to to do the same through example or exhortation or through knowingly misrepresenting a public health crisis for political and pandering reasons - to drunk driving.  

How we individually react to various Covid deaths is an individual calculus, and worthy of examination. How this man individually - and publicly - behaved is somewhat unclear. But in cases where the information is available and public and flagrant, my own calculus will probably be affected by the evidence of avoidable harm to others, just as it is with drunk drivers.

My friend died in a drunk driving accident. She was the driver. I can both grieve and blame her. 

I agree. It was blunt but not the first time that thought has been expressed on here by a long chalk. And the likes suggest you’re not alone in that thought.